November 16, 2011

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Detroit Free Press Personal Finance Columnist

Detroit Lion Ndamukong Suh and his team of Renaissance students celebrate a correct answer. / ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press

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Financial Football kicked off Tuesday in Michigan classrooms with an assist from Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.

The Michigan JumpStart Coalition, a group that promotes personal financial literacy in schools, and Visa launched a statewide effort to put the NFL-themed financial literacy video game and class curriculum in every public middle school and high school in Michigan.

About 2,000 discs will be sent next week to schools for use in the classroom, said Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon, who attended the Financial Football event at Renaissance High School in Detroit.

Dillon told students that financial stress has been experienced by companies, like General Motors; governments, like Greece, and individuals.

Lois Gibbons, chair of the Michigan JumpStart Coalition, told the students that learning more about responsible money management can help them and that there's no reason why students cannot end up as millionaires.

"Jump outside of the box you think you were raised in," she said.

A small group of students at Detroit's Renaissance High played the Financial Football game on a big screen with Suh and Dillon.

Suh coached one group of students, while Dillon coached another group to go through the financial quiz. The teams ended up tied at 8 to 8.

Among other questions, students were asked to define a "liability" and correctly decided that a liability is not a house and not an inheritance but a credit card balance.